Benchmark share indices ended 1.5% down on Thursday weighed down by selling pressure in Infosys after the software major slashed its dollar revenue guidance for FY13 to 5% against its earlier estimate of 8-10%.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended down 271 points or 1.6% at 17,218 and the 50-share Nifty down 77 points or 1.5% at 5,230.
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Updated at 14:27hrs
Markets have come off their day lows following marginal recovery in index heavyweight Infosys which had slumped over 10% after it slashed dollar revenue guidance for the current fiscal to 5%.
At 2:26PM the Sensex was down 242 points at 17,257 after touching an intra-day low of 17,181 while the Nifty was down 71 points at 5,235 after touching an intra-day low of 5,218 so far.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei share average posted its biggest fall in more than a month, dropping below major support at its 25-day moving average on Thursday after the Bank of Japan only offered minor tweaks to its easing strategy. The Nikkei declined 1.5 percent to 8,720.01, its biggest daily fall since June 8 and the sixth consecutive day of decline -- the longest such streak since early April.The Hang Seng was down over 2% while the Shanghai COmposite was up 0.5%.
European shares were also trading marginally lower with the CAC, DAX and FTSE down between 0.2%-0.5% each.
BSE IT index has slumped 5 percent following the Infosys guidance. Realty, consumer durables, capital goods, and bankex have shed 1-1.5% each.
Infosys was down 8.5% at Rs 2,257. Infosys cut its sales outlook for this fiscal year amid worries clients will reduce spending on outsourcing services due to global economic uncertainty, sending its shares down nearly 10% in early trades. The IT-major reported a marginal decline of 1.2 percent in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,289 crore for the quarter ended June 2012. It was Rs 2,316 crore in the previous quarter ended March 31. Among other software shares Wipro was down 3.7% while TCS was down 1.4% ahead of its first quarter results later in the day.
Other shares which dragged the Sensex include, Bharti Airtel down 3%, L&T slipped 1.4%, HDFC Bank fell 1% and ICICI Bank was down 1%.
The country's industrial output picked up more than expected in May, bolstering the case for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to keep interest rates high at its next policy meeting as a slow start to the monsoon puts pressure on inflation, especially food prices. IIP rose 2.4 percent in May from a year earlier, driven by manufacturing growth, data released on Thursday showed.
Meanwhile, ONGC has managed to hold on to gains and was up 1 percent at Rs 281. Hindustan Unilever, Gail India and Hero MotoCorp were up 0.7-0.8 percent.
Among other shares, BPCL was up 1% and Videocon Industries was up 0.5% after companies announced that IBV Brasil Petroleo Ltda., an equal joint venture of Bharat Petroleum and Videocon Industries, has struck oil off the Brazilian coast.
The broader markets, however, has managed to outperform the benchmark. BSE mid-cap index slipped 0.7% while small-cap index was down 0.8%.
BSE market breadth continues to be negative. Out of 2,751 traded, 1640 declined while 993 stocks advanced in trades.
